{Conference Weekend}

This past weekend was General Conference. We started our Saturday by going for a little jog/run/walk/waddle around the lake. Sean's training for a half marathon at the end of the month so he did 10 miles while Evette and I walked and played at the park.

Then we came home and listened to the words of our modern day Prophet and apostles

while eating delicious biscuits and gravy [tradition] 

Evette was pretty great through all of the sessions of conference and kept herself mostly entertained. 

In between the 2 sessions we went to a nearby church's pumpkin patch to find us some pumpkins! Evette has a new love of pumpkins and was in heaven running around and collecting all of them.

After the afternoon session of conference we went to our neighborhood's Oktoberfest. Basically that meant bounce houses....

 ...face painting...

...petting zoo... 

and delicious food. Evette thoroughly enjoyed herself and the weather was nice and cool!

 Pumpkin cookies - amazing if I do say so myself, and I don't always love pumpkin flavored things

 For breakfast the next morning we had cornbread, honey, and milk as per tradition! [Keeping it alive, G&G Binns!]

Between sessions we headed down to the arboretum to let Evette run around and use up all of that 2 year old energy. It worked!

 More pumpkin loving!

I love Fall at the arboretum - they always do a beautiful job!

this pumpkin garland is my favorite thing

My little princess and her prince charming!

Funniest thing - On the way out Evette ran straight into this bed of ground cover and promptly laid down and said "nigh nigh!" and began to snore. Hilarious! I was also a little embarrassed that she just ran into this garden bed and laid down in it.....

 ...but she was so stinkin adorable we had to take a few pictures before we pulled her out of it :)

Also she told us that she wants to be a dentist when she grows up.

Love this face.

Conference was great! Next post will actually be about the content of conferences as opposed to the things that we did around it :)

xoxo

{Life as a 2 year old}

We went to the Dr today for Evette's 2 year old check up - can't believe we're at that point. The whole way there she was saying "Doctor house! Fish! Doctor house! Fish!" There's an aquarium in the waiting area - It's amazing how much she comprehends.

She did great! She loves her Dr - she plays with him, helps him with his stethoscope, etc... He's the cutest old man and he's good to us - plus he validates me as a 

She's at the 60th percentile for weight and 91st percentile for height - tall girl! She got the flu mist [spray in the nose instead of a shot], tested for lead in her blood, and finished up her immunizations! Hooray! She was a brave girl.

And just for personal records - she's in size 5 diapers, recently moved into size 7 shoes, and will move into 3T clothes as soon as I wash them all and put them in her dresser.

She sleeps 14-15 hours a day. 12-13 at night and a 1.5-3 hour nap sometime after lunch [around 1 but we can push it back to 3ish without too much craziness if necessary]. She still sleeps with her "paci." I tried weening her off of that a couple weeks ago but after a couple days of missed naps I figured I had tortured my pregnant self long enough and gave up. Maybe another time.

She is a great little eater and has quite a sophisticated palate. She enjoys curry, salmon, and gnocchi as well as normal stuff like bananas, peanut butter crackers, and chocolate milk. She eats pretty much everything we put in front of her and eats a lot.

I feel like everyday she is adding at least one new word to her already massive list of words she can say, not to mention that she understands everything. I mean she is even learning all the different type of bug names like "ant, butterfly, bumblebee". I feel like her approach to talking is the same as it was to her walking. Most babies learn to stand, take a few wobbly steps at a time, but Evette, she just let go of the couch and started running. She would just run until she lost her balance and fell over. It's like she didn't know she was supposed to walk before you run - she just ran. Same with her talking - she just all of a sudden uses a new word that I've never heard her try to say before in a sentence - like hot dog, or penguin, or something else crazy. She's also stringing 5+ words together to build sentences. Like "Daddy work all done house!" when we pick up Sean from the train to take him home or "Mom more apple juice please!" or one of my favorites "Mommy all done poop Evette help wash hands" as she watches me go to the bathroom and then turns on the water to help me out - oh to be a mother lol!

She is working on learning the alphabet right now and it's adorable. I'll hear her singing in to herself while she's playing - she knows "phrases" of the song and sings them over and over again like "e-f-g....lno--e-f-g....lno" I once heard her say e-w all by herself. Amazing. She can also count all the way up to 10 but sometimes get stuck at 7 "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 6, 7, 6, 7..." We've also got a couple colors and shapes down.

She's also quite the artist and likes to color in the lines [see this picture? She drew all those lines inside her body as she was saying "feet, arm, hand, eye, ear, forehead, mouth"], draw airplanes, and practice writing her name along with all her friends [by write names I mean drawing lines while saying letters like "e...e...e...o....s..." it's adorable.

She loves her baby dolls - she reads them books, feeds them, bathes them, changes their diapers, and helps me color, clean, takes them on walks, puts them to bed "Shh! nigh nigh! love you!" She's such a good little mommy!

She's such an outgoing little girl who loves her friends so much! Absolutely no inhibition when it comes to her friends - she wants to play and hold hands and wrestle and just love them so much. She just loves them and wants to be loved - some kids are not so open to being so loved - she just has a big heart.

She loves loves loves loves loves to read, loves her choochoo trains, loves to color, loves her duplos, loves to help cook, loves to help do the dishes, loves to play with her chalk, loves to play and sing songs on the piano.

She lives life uninhibitedly and I admire that.

{Houston Visit}

In between birthday celebrations and visiting Baby James we had a good time down in Houston.

Swinging with Mimi

Going to Auntie Rachel's football game! Evette absolutely loved it! All the clapping, cheering, she was a big fan! 

She also got special treatment since Rachel is drum major

Marching show 

Look at that face!

Maybe this little one will grow up to be a band nerd, too! I'd love that.

Chillin

Sleeping in with Momma

And then some Sonic to keep us happy on the drive home

Good visit with family!

{Birthday Celebration}

 We celebrated Evette's birthday on Sunday when both grandparents and family could be together. Evette has been to a couple birthday parties already so she knew all about "Happy Days". We'd been talking with her about how her Happy Day was coming up, that we get to spend it with PapaMimi and PapaGigi and have cake and presents so she kind of knew what to expect [as far as you can tell that from a 2 year old...]. For dinner we all had Sweet Potato Chickpea Curry [a recent family favorite of ours - especially for Evette] and a delicious salad provided by Gigi.

And some good ol' family bonding time

 And Presents!!!

  [this girl may or may not have been spoiled rotten. Being the only child, only grandchild on one side, and with only one recent cousin on the other, it was bound to happen, my friends. Don't you know the sun rises and sets on this girl?]

Can I just add that all of the presents that she got were awesome? It was seriously great to get some "older" toys/activities that she just loves! She's really great at entertaining herself now because she has toys that are interesting and she can play and make-believe with. She's so grown up! 

  

This face is pure happiness because she got a Happy Day Hat!

Seriously look at those eyes sparkle! Can you tell I'm enamored with my own child?

 Besos!!!

Trying my hand at being creative and cute by making, of course, a dinosaur cake for my little girl!

Working on those candles!

Thanks, family, for helping us celebrate her Happy Day!

Also a big thanks to all those who mailed cards, texted, facebooked or brought something over to make it a Happy Day!

{I'm an Aunt!!}

My darling sister-in-law, Natalie, had a baby! I am now an aunt!! I didn't think I'd be as excited as I am because I've had my own kid for 2 years now, but ever since I found out she was pregnant I've been over the moon excited! When I heard that she was in labor I was skipping and singing around the house all day - that and checking my phone frantically for updates. And then little Baby James made his debut. I'm pretty much in love with this kid. We changed our travel plans and went down to Houston as soon as we could to celebrate Evette's birthday with the family but mostly to go visit that little bundle of happiness.

I mean, seriously - look at that face!

We've been talking about Cousin James with Evette nearly every day since we found out. We prayed for him and Aunt Natalie and she got to see Natalie pregnant a couple times so she knew all about the new baby. She was pretty excited when we told her we were going to go meet him.

I'm kinda a baby hog so it was very difficult to not swoop in and steal that baby from his Daddy's arms the second I saw him, but I'm glad I resisted because Evette desperately wanted to hold him first. She was in awe with him. She liked to stroke his hair, play with little fingers, and give him baby besos. It melted my little heart. She's going to be the best big sister.

Once I got to hold him I may or may not have just cried and cried. I love babies and I'm pregnant and I fell in love with this little boy and it made me excited [and a little bit terrified] for mine to get here. See how many emotions? You would have cried too, guaranteed. 

Evette also loved to give him little nuzzles. She loves to nuzzle and snuggle and it was precious to see that. 

The little visiting party.

  

I cannot wait to see this little man again!